Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | January 10, 1961 [1] Rome, Italy |
| Genres | Classical music |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, author |
| Instrument(s) | Violin |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Labels | EMI, Nonesuch, NSS Music |
| Website | nadjasalernosonnenberg |
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (born January 10, 1961) is an Italian and American classical violinist and teacher.
Salerno-Sonnenberg was born in Rome, Italy. Her father left when she was three months old. [2] She emigrated with her mother to the United States at age eight, relocating to Cherry Hill, New Jersey. [3] She studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and later with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music [4] [5] and the Aspen Music Festival and School. [6]
In 1981, she became the youngest-ever prize winner in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. [1] She received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1983, and in 1999 she was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize for "outstanding achievement and excellence in music".
In 1989, she wrote Nadja: On My Way, an autobiography written for children. In May 1999 she received an honorary Master of Musical Arts degree from New Mexico State University, the university's first honorary degree. She is also the subject of Paola di Florio's documentary Speaking in Strings , which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000. [1]
In 1994, Salerno-Sonnenberg badly injured her left little finger while chopping onions as she prepared Christmas dinner for friends and family. Her fingertip was surgically reattached and took six months to heal. During that time, she refingered compositions so that she could play using only three fingers and continued to perform. [1] [7] [8]
After her finger healed, she became depressed. In 1995, she attempted suicide but the gun failed to fire. [7]
In 2003, Salerno-Sonnenberg performed the world premiere of Sérgio Assad's Triple Concerto, a work for violin, two guitars and orchestra with the Assad brothers and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in St. Paul, Minnesota. [7] The same work, called "Originis", was recorded in 2009 with Salerno-Sonnenberg, the Assads, and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. [9]
Salerno-Sonnenberg has released many recordings on Angel/EMI Classics and Nonesuch. In 2005, she also created her own label, NSS Music. [3] She has performed with orchestras around the world and played at the White House. She has also performed with such popular artists as Mandy Patinkin, Joe Jackson, and Mark O'Connor. She has frequently collaborated with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. [10]
In 2008, Salerno-Sonnenberg was selected as the Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra under a three-year contract. After completing her first season with the orchestra, Salerno-Sonnenberg said: "I also have a solo career that I have to maintain—and I do. And I have a record label. I have three full-time jobs, and I don't know how long I can keep up this pace." [8]
In 2013 it was reported that American composer Samuel Jones was writing a violin concerto for Salerno-Sonnenberg. [11]
In 2015, Salerno-Sonnenberg joined Loyola University New Orleans as a Resident Artist. [12]
Salerno-Sonnenberg has continued to perform with various symphonies, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony, as well as at festivals like Wolf Trap. [13] [14] [15] [16]
Salerno-Sonnenberg plays a Peter Guarneri violin called the "Miss Beatrice Lutyens, ex Cte de Sasserno, Cremona 1721". [10] [17]
In 2006, The Washington Post characterized Salerno-Sonnenberg as a "fiercely original, deeply emotive violinist". Over the 25 years she had already been concertizing, "her playing, always mercurial and exciting but occasionally a little scattershot, has become positively reliable, both musically and technically, without losing any of the wild electricity that always set her apart." The only criticism the reviewer made of her interpretation was of "her characteristic tendency to break up the melodic line into fragments". [18]
Some reviewers criticized the clothes she wore during performances, her facial "grimaces", and her "almost abandoned disregard". Critic Martin Bernheimer said that Salerno-Sonnenberg was "battling the composer rather than interpreting the composer." [1] Another critic disagreed: "I don't care what she wears or how she moves as long as she keeps playing with such passionate intelligence." [19] Fans have found her performances "exhilarating". In 2004, Salerno-Sonnenberg said she answered "hundreds of fan letters a year" on her website. [1]
In later years, some critics who had originally been irritated by Salerno-Sonnenberg's on-stage mannerisms said they "no longer bother" them. While still complaining about some of her interpretations, one critic nonetheless called her a technical virtuoso. [13]
She was a guest several times on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson , and was also featured on 60 Minutes in 1986. In May 1999, 60 Minutes II aired a follow-up. [1] In 2001, she appeared as herself on the sitcom Dharma & Greg in the episode "Dream A Little Dream of Her".
Sarah Chang is a Korean American classical violinist. Recognized as a child prodigy, she first played as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1989. She enrolled at Juilliard School to study music, graduated in 1999, and continued university studies. Especially during the 1990s and early to mid-2000s, Chang had major roles as a soloist with many of the world's major orchestras.
Anne-Sophie Mutter is a German violinist. Born and raised in Rheinfelden, Baden-Württemberg, Mutter started playing the violin at age five and continued studies in Germany and Switzerland. She was supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan and made her orchestral debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977. Since Mutter gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, she has recorded over 50 albums and performed as a soloist with leading orchestras worldwide and as a recitalist. Her primary instrument is the Lord Dunn–Raven Stradivarius violin.
Hilary Hahn is an American violinist. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she has performed throughout the world as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors, and as a recitalist. She is an avid supporter of contemporary classical music, and several composers have written works for her, including concerti by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon, partitas by Antón García Abril, two serenades for violin and orchestra by Einojuhani Rautavaara, and a violin and piano sonata by Lera Auerbach.
Yi-Jia Susanne Hou is a Canadian violinist.
Jennifer Elaine Higdon is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and three Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto in 2010, Viola Concerto in 2018, and Harp Concerto in 2020. Elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019, she was a professor of composition at the Curtis Institute of Music from 1994 to 2021.
Cecile Buencamino Licad is a Filipina classical pianist. She was born in Manila.
Julia Fischer is a German classical violinist and pianist. She teaches at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts and performs up to 60 times per year.
Elisabeth Batiashvili, professionally known as Lisa Batiashvili, is a prominent Georgian violinist active across Europe and the United States. A former New York Philharmonic artist-in-residence, she is acclaimed for her "natural elegance, silky sound and the meticulous grace of her articulation". Batiashvili makes frequent appearances at high-profile international events; she was the violin soloist at the 2018 Nobel Prize concert.
Sérgio Assad is a Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger who often performs with his brother, Odair in the guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad, commonly referred to as the Assad Brothers or Duo Assad. Their younger sister Badi is also a guitarist. Assad is the father of composer/singer/pianist Clarice Assad. He is married to Angela Olinto.
The Albany Symphony Orchestra is a professional symphony orchestra based in Albany, New York.
Augustin Hadelich is an Italian-German-American Grammy-winning classical violinist.
Humoresque is a 1946 American melodrama film by Warner Bros. starring Joan Crawford and John Garfield in an older woman/younger man tale about a violinist and his patroness. The screenplay by Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold was based upon the 1919 short story "Humoresque" by Fannie Hurst, which previously was made into a film in 1920. Humoresque was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Jerry Wald.
Anne Akiko Meyers is an American concert violinist. Meyers was the top-selling classical instrumentalist of 2014 on Billboard's traditional classical charts.
The New Century Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1992 by cellist, Miriam Perkoff, and violist, Wieslaw Pogorzelski. The goal of the founders was to present classical music in a fresh and unique way in the San Francisco Bay Area. The music director chooses the programs and guides the artistic vision and leads the seventeen members of the orchestra as part of a conductorless orchestra. Musical decisions are made collaboratively, in the goal of enhancing the level of commitment on the part of the musicians and increasing the precision, passion and power of their playing.
Clarice Assad is a Brazilian-American composer, pianist, arranger, singer, and educator from Rio de Janeiro. She is influenced by popular Brazilian culture, Romanticism, world music, and jazz. She comes from a musical family, which includes her father, guitarist Sergio Assad, her uncle, guitarist Odair Assad, and her aunt, singer-songwriter Badi Assad.
Dylana Jenson is an American concert violinist and violin teacher. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her husband, conductor-cellist David Lockington, music director laureate of the Grand Rapids Symphony. They have four children. Jenson is the sister of Vicky Jenson, an animated film story board artist and director.
Guila Bustabo was a prominent American concert and recital violinist.
Edith Peinemann was an internationally recognized German violinist and professor of violin. At age nineteen she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, and made her U.S. debut as soloist in 1962 with Max Rudolf, after which she became a protégé of George Szell. In 2005 she became president of the European String Teachers Association.
Poème, Op. 25, is a work for violin and orchestra written by Ernest Chausson in 1896. It is a staple of the violinist's repertoire, has very often been recorded and performed, and is generally considered Chausson's best-known and most-loved composition.
Fallingwater is a 2013 concerto for solo violin and string orchestra by the American composer Michael Daugherty, inspired by four of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings: Taliesin, Fallingwater, Unity Temple and the Guggenheim Museum. The work was commissioned by the director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, who gave the premiere on November 20, 2013.
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